In the seven years since American Nations was published, most readers have endorsed their county’s placement among the eleven regional cultures I write about in the book. Two locations have generated some sustained pushback, however, both of them border cities on the Midland-Greater Appalachia frontier: Columbus, Ohio (assigned to Greater Appalachia in large part because of lingual evidence) and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (a clear-cut Midland city in my reading of history, but surrounded on three sides by Greater Appalachia.)
This week, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff columnist Brian O’Neill revisited his city’s regional identity in this column, where he emphasizes its competing influences and seems to concede that calling it Appalachia might not be sufficient. It’s a nice synopsis from the field, and represents a bit of a shift from our friendly debate in 2013, when O’Neill lamented the city’s Midland designation (it’s “the Paris of Appalachia” he insisted.)
As for Columbus, I’ve heard both pro and con arguments from readers there for its Appalachian designation, but nothing from the city’s intelligentsia. Let’s hope they weigh in one of these days — the Cleveland Plain Dealer did in regards to the Western Reserve’s Yankee character in comparison with southern Ohio’s Appalachian one — but not a word from the Dispatch.
[Update, 1/1/2019: O’Neill revisited this topic again in December.]